Hey everyone, I just wanted to see how people started to want to learn Japanese because those can be rather funny. As for my case it all began with a certain friend I hung out with on Mondays and Wednesdays at Borders. He was telling me how Japanese was such a cool language to learn, so the next Monday I bought a book and was learning it off and on, I was also really into anime, then I went over my other friend's house into his room, his whole room was Japanese based! I was amazed, and really wanted to learn, and he gave me his Japanese bible and here I am. I've loved the language, the culture, and just plain Japan ever since.:DB)

MY SIG IMAGE WAS OVER 100 PIXELS HIGH AND THE ADMINS SMOTE IT WITH A HAMMER OF SMITING.

Ah I have read you post! I started learning the language because of the first episode on Samurai Champloo. I then dled the whole series and went from there. I always loved anime, but never felt compelled to learn the language untill then.

As with most ppl I started watching anime, then I wanted to learn the language. as I've studied I've learned about the culture and the people, the more I learned about them, the more I wanted to learn the language. Once I got started I was hooked. ^__^

I just think the language is sort of neat. I wanted to learn Russian, but Japanese sort of stepped up and said, 'Yo, my characters are ten times as wacky as that dude's,' and I guess it started that way.

Saw "SailorMoon" on TV when I was in junior high--also found "Akira" and "Vampire Hunter D" on SciFi channel's "Saturday Anime" run (anyone else remember that...?). When I found the "SM" translated manga in Hot Topic, then I started to get hooked on Japanese comics.

Used Heisig's "Remembering the Kana" books to teach me hira- and katakana. I've always been art-minded, so the beauty and idea of the kanji characters were so interesting to me. Senior year, my best friend hosted a girl from Koube, Japan and my interest in the culture of Japan started to deepen.

2nd year in college, summer semester, I had 4 studio art classes and I thought "I need something to break this up or I'm gonna go art-nuts..." so I picked up JPNS 100 out of interest and it turned into a Japanese minor (my school didn't offer a major). Studied abroad the next summer to fulfill JPNS requirements. The year following graduation, I lived in Japan for a year teaching English.

Now I am struggling to learn, remember and study.... without a class I am darn-near helpless. My new friend, Tetsuya, meets with me once a week for conversation. I will be taking the JLPT lvl 3 this December, and am considering starting classes again in the Winter.

My ideal job is writing music for computer games so i would like to live and work in Japan writing music. thats my ideal dream. I am working towards it but i know of a thing called reality, so im training to teach english in japan and then see where that goes. Im also training in business so i have the japanese language and business know-how to fall back on, but im aiming for what i want.

So far i havent found anything about japan i don't like, the language is difficult but thats the whole point of learning something isn't it? The good feeling you get when you achieved it. Everything ive come across in my time in Japan was new and exciting, the food, the culture and the people (even if they do get a little startled / intimidated when you speak japanese to them)!

When I was 6 years old, my family hosted a high school exchange student from japan. She was the first, actually, of like 4 total. We had one later from Chile, South America, and one from... Italy? I think.. and the last one.. I don't remember at all.

My mom had signed up as a host for the program to learn about other cultures and such, but most of the exchange students just did their own thing and were hardly ever even at our house, except during my mom's ironclad "You will be here between 10pm and 8am" rule. No one ticks off my mom, so they were there.

But Yasuko... she was the first of them, and she was the only one that spent time with our family -- including with me, the little 6 year old pest who was full of questions. She gave me books (printed in english) about japan. She told me stories and taught me origami. She let me go in her room *gasp*. I wasn't even allowed in my own sisters' rooms.

In short, she was awesome. She was definately an idol for me. Going beyond role model, really. I could get really sappy here, but I'll stop before I do.

I suppose I probably associate her behavior among our family with Japanese societal difference. Whether it's true or not, I have the impression that family is REVERED in japanese culture -- at least much more so than American families.

By the by: When she first arrived, she told me that she was scared she would get fat. All of her friends that went to America came back to Japan fat. A couple months later she discovered MnM's, and gained probably 10 lbs. When she left, she gave me one of her high school pictures, and wrote on the back "Never forget Miss Piggy from Japan."